


Family Secrets

by Violet_Rose_Of_Darkness



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: AU, Deranged Family Bonds, Dysfunctional Family, Family Secrets, dollhouse - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 04:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14489061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_Rose_Of_Darkness/pseuds/Violet_Rose_Of_Darkness
Summary: Things go a little differently in the Dollhouse when Spencer finds A's vault for the first time. Two-shot





	Family Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who haven't read this yet, it's just an idea that I wanted to play around with. I don't know why, but I just didn't like the fact that Charlotte could care about Ali and Alex, but not Spencer.

"This is you, isn't it, Charles?"

I didn't get a reply. I didn't expect to. A, Charles; the person who had been tormenting us for the majority of senior year was standing behind me. Hell, I could practically feel his breath on my neck. I should have been terrified at that moment, but I wasn't. I stopped getting scared - truly afraid - for my own life sometime after Mona knocked me out at the Lost Woods. Besides, Charles wouldn't kill me. I was a doll to him, a precious toy. We all were. If he wanted us dead, he would have done so long ago.

I stared at the screen, watching Mrs. DiLaurentis, the two little boys - one of which was Jason and the other Charles - and the baby who I was sure was Ali. How was it possible that Ali and Jason could have a brother without any of us knowing? Did they even know? How many more secrets did Jessica DiLaurentis take to her grave?

My heart was pounding in my chest as I pondered turning around. I could turn and rip the hoodie of his head and uncover this mystery once and for all, or I could leave it and never know who's under it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to make that choice.

There was a pressure on my neck and before I know it, the world began to get hazy. My head started to spin and my vision was blurring as I collapsed to the floor. I was vaguely aware of light, beautiful singing as I lost consciousness. The voice was ringing a very faint bell in the back of my head, but I couldn't place it.

Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my sister.

OoOoOo

"I told you not to come here yet!"

"I just wanted to meet her! Don't I have that right?"

"You're going to ruin everything! If she sees you-!"

"You just want to keep her to yourself!"

This was what I woke up to. The two voices arguing were that of females; one very familiar and the other with an English accent. My right wrist was chained to the post of the bed I was lying on and my head was throbbing. "Hello?" I called, sitting up as much as I could. "Charles?"

The arguing stopped as someone came into the room. It was a woman with a head full of long blond hair and sharp, startlingly blue eyes. I knew who it was almost instantly.

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull as a gasp escaped my lips. "CeCe?"

CeCe Drake smiled back at me. It was unlike her usual charming grin; this was more of a cynical smirk. "I see you're up, Spence," she remarked, approaching me. My chained wrist only let me back away so far.

I felt my head reel as I tried to figure out why the hell CeCe Drake was in the Dollhouse. Wait... For the first time, I take a look at my surroundings. This wasn't my room - real or fake. It was something of a wooden cabin, similar to the one my friends - and Mona - almost died in. I didn't even think I was in the Dollhouse anymore.

Somehow, I wasn't as relieved as I should have been.

I found it hard to speak coherent sentences. "CeCe, why are you... where are... what's going on?"

She laughs delicately, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "Oh, Spence," she tuts. "Use that pretty little head of yours. You're the smart one, remember?"

I squinted at her before I jerked as realization hit me like Wilden did as the Queen of Hearts that night on the train. "You... You're A?" My heart rate picks up and I suddenly found it getting harder to breathe. "You're Charles DiLaurentis?"

"Very good," praised CeCe condescendingly.

It felt as if my world was crashing around me. "B-But you... How could... What?" I felt exceedingly less smart than everyone made me out to be in that moment.

"Let me tell you a story," CeCe said, her voice soft. "Once, there was a little boy names Charles DiLaurentis. He loved his mommy and daddy and his brother and sister." Her eyes suddenly hardened, taking my by surprise. "But there was one problem. His daddy didn't like the fact that he liked to wear his mommy's dresses and play with dolls, even though his mommy thought it was cute. One day, Charles made a mistake. Do you know what that mistake was, Spencer?"

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I simply shook my head.

"Charles' mommy was outside with his brother, Jason," she continued. "Charles was inside with his sister, Ali. Ali - who was only a baby at the time - was crying. Now, what usually calmed him down was a bath. So he thought that his sister would feel better after a bath too. The water was scalding when he put her in. Charles didn't mean to, but he almost drowned her.

"His daddy came in and everything went to hell. Before Charles knew it, he was stuck in Radley Sanitarium; away from his family and away from his precious sister. Still, his mommy came to visit him and whenever she about his sister an outfit, he would get the same one. He befriended a girl named Bethany Young and the two stuck together. That is, until Bethany did something really bad. Something that affected someone very close to you. Do you know who that was?"

I swallowed, tying to find my voice. "W-Who?" I choked out.

"Your little boyfriend, Toby Cavanaugh, dearest Spencer," revealed CeCe and my breath hitched in my throat. "See, they were on the roof when Marion Cavanaugh came up. Charles, being the boy in girl's clothes, hid and let Bethany deal with it." She shook her head. "Well, she 'dealt with it,' alright. By pushing Mrs. Cavanaugh off the roof. Then, she turned around and blamed poor Charles for it. He, of course, got blamed and his mommy paid of Detective Wilden to rule it as a suicide. She also took Bethany places to keep her quiet about the whole thing."

I felt a pang in my heart for Toby, but kept my face steely. "What happened next?" I managed.

She smiled at me. "Always hungry for answers. I like that." She patted my head and I urged myself not to swat her away. "Now, where was I? Oh, right! By sixteen years old, Charles DiLaurentis was dead."

"What?"

CeCe laughed at my confusion. "Charles DiLaurentis was dead," she repeated. "but Charlotte DiLaurentis was ready to take on the world."

"Oh," I realized. She must have been transgender. That explained why she was a woman when Charles had been a boy.

"Anyway, Charlotte was still stuck in Radley. But because she worked hard academically, the board gave her permission to attend classes at UPenn." She sighed dramatically. "Alas, all her classes were terribly boring. So, one day she called in a bomb threat so she could have the day off. Risky, but totally worth it because she found herself at Rosewood High where the senior class was taking their yearbook pictures." She smiled. "That's where Charlotte saw her brother for the first time in years."

"You mean Jason?"

CeCe rolled her eyes. "How many brothers do I have, Spencer?"

I glared at her, not the least bit afraid for some reason. "Then stop talking in the third person, it's making my head hurt more than it already does. Besides, for all I know, you have twelve of them."

She smirked. "Touché. Well, Jason and I started dating."

My eyes went wide in disgust as I remembered what CeCe had told me the first day I met her. "You dated your own brother? Ew." I raised an eyebrow. "Did you two...?"

"Disgusting, Spencer. That's my brother. I was just using us dating as an excuse to get close to my family. Mom was mad, but she couldn't say anything with all of them there. Anyway, I went to Cape May with them and all that." CeCe smiled fondly at the memory. "We had a hell of a time there too." She scowled. "But when we came back, everything went to shit."

"September first," I said. "The day Ali disappeared. You-"

"I didn't mean to!" insisted CeCe quickly. "Spencer, please believe me. I, it was that bitch, Bethany!" Huh, it almost sounded like the cared what I thought of her. "She found out my mom was having an affair with her dad and she lost it. She stole my clothes, she knew I had out privilages, and she snuck out of Radley." Her fist clenched at her side. "She was gonna hurt my mom."

I tilted my head to the side, trying to wrap my head around this. "You meant to hit Bethany, but you hit Ali instead?" Of course. It all made sense now. We knew that Mrs. DiLaurentis had seen it. Why would you cover up the murder of your child unless it was your other child that did it?

She nodded, tears coming to her eyes. "She wouldn't look at me," she whispered brokenly. "She wouldn't even look at me when she buried her." She wiped her eyes. "Anyway, she paid off Wilden to cover it up and I got hauled back to Radley."

"Why are you telling just me this?" I suddenly asked. "Why not all the girls or even just Ali?"

"I'll get to that, Spencer," CeCe told me. "Two years later, I met Mona. And she was awesome. I approached her in Radley and made her think I was Ali." Her gaze hardened again and I fidgeted. "She told me that the four of you were glad that Ali was dead."

"That's not true!" I interrupted. "I don't know what Mona told you, but we were heartbroken. I-I couldn't sleep for an entire month. She's my best friend."

She softened slightly. "That's when I became A. Partly because of what Mona told me and partly because I started seeing a blond following you four. I thought that if Ali thought you were in danger, she'd show herself."

Rage suddenly filled me. "So you stalked, harassed, tormented, and kidnapped us for a year because you thought that we were glad that your sister - a girl who verbally abused and degraded us on a daily bases - was dead?" I demanded.

CeCe pouted. "Well, when you say it like that, it makes me sound like a bad person."

Had she really just said that to me? "You-!"

"Oh, enough about you already, Charlotte!" complained the English voice from earlier as she stepped into the room. "Tell her about me already!" This was a girl my age with long brown hair and matching eyes.

Me, I realized with a start as I watched the woman, not even daring to blink. The girl looked exactly like me. From my height, to my face and body shape. Everything about her screamed "Spencer Jill Hastings." The only thing that set us apart was her accent.

CeCe sighed in exasperation. "I was getting to you, Alexandra. Now, look what you did to her." I guessed in the depths of my mind that she was referring to me. "I haven't even mentioned Mary Drake yet and you broke her."

The girl - Alexandra - shrugged. "Well, it's not everyday that you find out you have a twin." She turned to me, smiling. There was something about seeing my own smile on a face that wasn't mine that really put me off. "Is it Spencer?" I stared at her wordlessly before I suddenly felt lightheaded as I promptly fell back onto the bed, passing out once more.

"Well, that could have gone a lot better," is the last thing I hear before I completely lost consciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> So, that was the first part of my little fic. I hope you liked it. Please review and I'll see you next chapter!


End file.
